They were one of the youngest teams that competed in the Under-19 Division at the 2015 Canadian Ringette Championships earlier this month in Wood Buffalo, Alberta.

The Eastman Flames had seven 16-year-olds on their roster and even though they failed to record a win at the Nationals, head coach Omer Huberdeau says his ringette team was very, very competitive.

"Of all the teams we played, I never felt that at anytime that we were being outskated or outplayed," said Huberdeau. "Our players skated very well. We skated with every team we played. Unfortunately we didn't get all the breaks we needed to win some of the games but we were in a pretty tough pool."

How tough was Pool "B"?

The top four teams in the pool - the Nepean Ravens, Team British Columbia, the St. Albert Mission and Team Alberta - all qualified for the semifinals.

St. Albert advanced by eliminating Team Ontario who was undefeated and finished first in Pool "A".

The Flames had a tough week as they lost five of their eight games by two goals or less.

"We played an overtime game against B.C. who finished third in our pool and that was a tough loss which was a little bit hard to recover from," said Huberdeau. "They still finished strong just losing some one-goal games here and there. I'm very proud with the way the girls played."

"The girls played with heart," added Huberdeau. "I got to commend our girls for putting everything they had into every game regardless of the score and played with heart which is the Eastman Flames way."

Steinbach's Heidi Chernos, Catherine Lemoine-Courcelles of Dufresne and Brooke Enns & Cara Jones of La Salle all played their last game in the Under-19 Division on April 3rd when the Flames dropped a 4-3 decision to Lac St. Louis in the 13th place game.

"We only have four graduating players who are moving in the Open League," Huberdeau said. "It will be great for those players that are returning for next years push to Nationals as well. It's not easy to get to Nationals. You have a lot of players play a lot of different sports and getting to a National Championship within itself is still a great accomplishment. A lot people play their whole career and never attend a Nationals so it's fantastic for those girls who got the experience and they can take that and move into next season and perform well."

The Flames did extremely well in the Skills Competition at the Nationals.

Cassandra Groen finished second in the goaltenders skills competition.

Keely Lyons was second in the fastest skater competition.

Josee Huberdeau won the fastest agility skater competition.

Huberdeau and Julian Clarke were runnerup in the pairs passing competition.

Ringette Manitoba tryouts for the 2015-2016 season begin Monday, April 13th.